Pain & Anger
by TeddyBear98
Summary: It's been 3 months since Barry's kidnapping, and he's still struggling with his secret identity no longer being a secret – not to mention trying to help rehabilitate Shawna Baez. Throw the still-on-the-loose, revenge-seeking Nathan Bliss and Roy Bivolo into the mix, and it's a recipe for disaster. Team Flash has a long, hard road ahead of them. Sequel to Infected


**Author's Note:** Hey guys! To any of you waiting for an update for Vengeful Spirits, I apologize for the lateness of that. I've been busy lately, and I'm gonna be honest and say I haven't even started the next chapter yet, but I know where it's going and it will hopefully be up soon!

However, this sequel has been a long-time coming, and I was already nearly done with this first chapter, so I wanted to finish this first and get it up! So, welcome to the sequel to Infected! I know several people have been waiting for this, so I hope you enjoy! I can't promise regular updates for this, nor for Vengeful Spirits anymore, but I promise I'm not going to abandon either! Life is just crazy right now! But without further adieu, please enjoy the first chapter of Pain and Anger :)

* * *

Barry Allen awoke to the sound of his alarm clock blaring and groaned, blinking blearily and fumbling with one hand over the top of the device until he hit the proper button to turn it off. It was definitely much, _much_ too early to be up on a Saturday, and despite the fact that he had given up on sleeping in at all weeks ago, his body still protested his choices. With a sigh, the speedster rubbed a hand over his face and forced himself to slide out of bed, flashing around the room to quickly get ready. He was done within seconds, standing in front of the mirror and pushing one last pesky piece of hair into place before heading downstairs. He found Joe at the stove cooking breakfast, and Iris at the kitchen table on her phone. When he had started getting up earlier, they had both abandoned their extra sleep as well – to keep him company in the mornings, they had claimed. Barry knew it was really more of a way to keep an eye on him. He pushed the thought aside.

"Morning, Bar," Iris greeted with a smile, looking up from her phone as she heard him approach.

"Morning," he replied, sitting down beside her as Joe placed a steaming plate of scrambled eggs in front of the two of them.

"Bon appetit," the detective said with a light smile of his own, grabbing a plate for himself before sitting down with the two; Barry gave his foster father a brief nod of thanks before digging in, holding back a yawn. He could really use some coffee.

"You know, you could go back to sleep for a while," Joe suggested, clearly catching on to the speedster's tiredness as he took a bite of his own eggs. "I know they won't mind if –"

Barry shook his head firmly before Joe could finish, effectively shutting him up.

"I'm fine, Joe," he replied, looking down at the table instead of at the older man, pushing the eggs on his plate around. "I need something to do in between Flash duties, and…training Shawna keeps me busy." Joe wore a slightly disapproving look, but didn't push that particular matter. Barry had made it clear from the beginning of the arrangement that had been made with the meta girl that Joe couldn't talk him out of it. And Joe had promised him after the events of his kidnapping that he would try and go easy on her, for helping to protect him in the end. That small act of redemption and Barry's offer to work with her were the only things that had kept her out of Iron Heights.

"Well, you know, Singh called again earlier," Joe replied. "And he wanted me to remind you that whenever you're ready, you're still welcome back at –"

"No," Barry said firmly, once again cutting off Joe. He didn't miss the look the cop and his daughter shared at the protestation. "We've been over this, Joe," he pushed on. "I don't want to go back. It'll be more trouble than it's worth."

"But Barry –" the man tried again, and Barry sighed, taking one more bite of eggs before standing up and pushing his plate aside.

"I'm going to STAR," he said, avoiding looking at either of the other two at the table. "See you guys later." He was gone in a burst of wind and lightning before they could protest.

"I don't get it, dad," Iris said after a moment, pushing her own mostly-finished breakfast away. "It's been three months. The fan and reporter activity has calmed down a lot. I'm pretty sure he can get back to being a CSI without stirring up too much trouble."

"It's gonna take a lot more than 'pretty sure' to get him back there, baby," Joe replied with a sad smile; that much had become evident to him. Ever since the reveal of his identity, Barry just hadn't felt comfortable carrying on with his normal job, no matter how many times Singh called to try and get him back – and no matter how much the change worried his friends and family. The man practically lived between the house and STAR Labs these days, aside from the time he spent as his superhero persona. In the beginning, the speedster had had hope that things would become easier over time. It didn't take a rocket scientist, however, to figure out that he hadn't adapted as well as anyone had hoped he would to the major change. And no one could exactly blame him. They just wished that things would go back to normal. Iris sighed, getting up to bring her plate to the sink.

"Well, I have to get to _my_ job," she announced. "The novelty of me knowing the Flash won't get me many more free passes for being late. I promised Evans I'd come in early today. But I'll check in with Barry during my lunch break."

Joe gave her a soft smile. "Sounds good," he said. "I'll probably head over there myself for lunch."

"To check up on Barry, or Shawna?" Iris questioned, raising an eyebrow, and Joe let out a huff.

"I can do both," he said indignantly, and Iris shook her head with another soft sigh, walking over to give him a peck on the cheek.

"Love you, dad. I'll see you later."

"Love you too, baby."

* * *

"Hey, Barry," Caitlin greeted as the speedster skidded to a stop in the Cortex, turning away from the microscope slide she was looking at to give him a smile.

"Mmh, morning," Barry replied without much vigor, quickly changing into his Flash suit in another burst of lightning. The doctor raised an eyebrow at Barry's lack of enthusiasm.

"Rough morning?" she asked. "Did a reporter stop by again or something? Because Iris _specifically_ told everyone at CCPN –"

"Caitlin, stop, it wasn't a reporter," Barry said with a light groan, running a hand through his hair. "Joe was trying to get on my case about work. Singh apparently called again," he said.

"And you said no again?" she guessed. Barry looked exasperated.

"Please don't start on this again too," he pleaded, and Caitlin put her hands up in a gesture of surrender.

"I won't," she said, though Barry didn't miss the look of worry that flashed across her face as she watched him. And it was a look he was honestly getting quite sick of seeing. He understood that his friends and family were worried about him, but the last thing he wanted right now was more pity. There had been no lack of that in the past few months.

"Just – where's Cisco?" he asked, a tone of irritation audible in his voice. "He said he was going to run an exercise with me and Shawna today."

"He went down to the pipeline to grab her already. He said they'd meet you on the roof."

"The roof?" Barry asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, he's been working on moving some equipment up there for training purposes. We figured it might work better than the abandoned lot you guys have been using. And a little more private."

"Oh, alright," Barry replied simply. Hopefully it _would_ be more private. They had already switched training places once due to being found by a news team from Keystone. The mix of reactions he had gotten when people found out he was training with one of his previous captors/one of Central City's former evil metahumans made him uncomfortable enough to halt their sessions for nearly two weeks. It had taken the combined convincing of Caitlin and Cisco to get those going again, and the fact that Barry knew Shawna still needed work learning how to better her abilities if she ever wanted to get out in the field. Her training and the companionship of the team was instrumental in what they had deemed a rehabilitation of sorts, her switch from villain to a possible hero. And Barry had to admit, he was impressed with her progress both with her powers and with her kinder attitude. He gave a small nod of thanks to Caitlin before flashing up to the roof without another word to the doctor. He didn't have to wait long before Cisco materialized with Shawna.

"Hey man," Cisco greeted with a smile as he saw Barry already there waiting. The engineer was decked out in full Vibe gear; he had been steadily improving on his powers over the months since the incident, and Barry suspected in some way it was so that he felt more useful to the team, after everything that had happened. Shawna trailed directly behind him, and she gave Barry a soft smile as well.

"Morning," she said with a small wave, and Barry smiled lightly back at her.

"Hey guys," he greeted in return. "You have something planned for today, Cisco?" he then asked, cutting right to the chase. Cisco nodded.

"That I do," he replied. "I figured since I've gotten a better hold on all this vibing stuff, it might be good to actually run a session with all three of us working together. I have some missile launchers in place all over here, nothing too dangerous, but good enough for a good practice run to see how we all mesh together."

"I'm down for that," Shawna replied, rubbing the back of her neck and shooting Barry a questioning look to see if he agreed.

"Alright," Barry said with a shrug, pulling up his cowl – pretty unnecessary, though still habit when he was in a somewhat open area. Cisco grinned.

"Epic," he said, and pulled a small remote from inside his pocket. "Ready?" As the speedster and the teleporter both nodded their approval, Cisco pushed the top button on the remote. Barry could hear the whirring of the missile launchers booting up, and it was only seconds before the things started firing.

And then the three were off, dodging in different directions. The three missiles that had shot out immediately turned sharply to follow their targets.

"Cisco!" Barry berated as he noticed. "You didn't say they were heat seeking!"

"My bad!" the engineer shouted, opening a small breach and leaping through it to avoid the projectile that was gaining on him. He popped out on the opposite side of the roof, and the missile turned to head for Barry instead, two now on his trail as they locked onto his hotter heat signature.

"Vibe blast!" Shawna suggested, shouting across the open space to Cisco, and the man nodded, firing two blasts at the missiles following the running speedster. One missed, though one successfully hit its target and knocked it off track – causing it to lock onto Shawna instead, who was still attempting to dodge her first. The girl teleported away quickly, ending up next to Cisco on the opposite side of the roof. Barry wasted no time speeding over, pausing momentarily to assess the situation as all three started heading for the three metas once more.

"Cisco, breach to the other side," Barry suggested, "And shoot! Shawna, stay put." The girl looked slightly nervous, but Cisco seemed to get what Barry was getting at. He opened a breach and stepped out on the other side of the roof once more, watching as the missiles rapidly approached Barry and Shawna.

"Wait," Barry encouraged her. "Don't teleport until the last possible second." Shawna nodded. It took only seconds for the missiles to get too close for comfort, and that's when Cisco shot three consecutive blasts towards the weapons as Shawna teleported and Barry sped to the side. The blasts this time sent two of the missiles crashing to the cement floor of the roof, only one remaining.

"Good, Cisco!" Barry called out, watching carefully as the last missile turned tail and once again locked onto him, the hottest being in the vicinity. And he was quite ready to handle it, until he heard an all too familiar noise. Somewhat in the distance, though getting closer, was the sound of helicopter blades. Barry looked up briefly and immediately spotted the news chopper heading in a direct path towards the STAR Labs roof, clearly having spotted them, and the man froze. The distraction cost him dearly.

"Barry!" he heard Cisco shout, and whipped his head back around – but too late. The last missile rammed into his side, and the speedster barely had time to let out a gasp of pain before he was unceremoniously knocked from the circular roof and fell down to the hard ground below. The fall seemed to cruelly take longer than it should have, but he was wishing it had lasted longer when he hit the cement below and landed on the same side with a painful crack. He yelled out again, curling in on himself as his entire right side exploded into a white hot pain, his head pounding and black spots darkening his vision. It didn't take long for Cisco and Shawna to respectively teleport and breach down to the ground, crouching beside him.

"Barry, man, hang on," Cisco said, a clear wince in his voice. "Shawna, go get Caitlin!" He could hear her footsteps running away even over the slight ringing in his ears. He groaned as he felt Cisco roll him over onto his back, his slightly blurred face hovering over Barry's own. The engineer looked up disapprovingly at the sky, and Barry realized he could still hear the chopper blades, and he felt his heart sink. Thankfully, Shawna arrived back with Caitlin only seconds later. Her face joined Cisco's above his.

"You'll be fine," she said soothingly, and then there were arms dragging him onto a surface he knew from ample experience was a stretcher. He was inside in record time, the helicopter noise dissipating once inside the building. Cisco then breached them up to the Cortex where he was immediately brought to the med bay and lifted into the bed, his cowl yanked off. Barry winced.

"How did this happen?" he heard Caitlin asking disapprovingly, and knowing Cisco was bound to feel guilty, he ground out the answer himself.

"Missile," he said between gritted teeth. The black spots were slowly fading away, leaving his vision clearer but taking none of the pain with it. His side was still searing, and he bit back a scream as Caitlin started to peel his suit back and prodded at his side and arm.

"I think you cracked your ribs," she said. "Definitely broke your arm, maybe your wrist. It looks like you were spared internal bleeding, which is lucky."

He didn't _feel_ lucky.

"Cait," he choked out, and she looked down at him. "Did…did the news team catch any of that?" he asked, his voice a mix of frustration and dejection. Barry could see the way her features softened, the pity that crept back into her gaze.

"Barry –"

"Did they?" he asked again, his voice cracking and rising slightly in volume, and the doctor bit her lip.

"I'm not sure, Barry. Maybe, maybe not. But that's not what you need to focus on right now, okay?" Her answer didn't satisfy him at all, but the speedster only nodded numbly, bitterly. "Now, your arm popped out of its socket," she said, attempting to get right back into doctor mode. "I need to reset it, okay? It's going to hurt." She didn't even bother counting. The pain was sudden and harsh coupled with the pain already eating at him, and it was all he could take. He let the blackness of unconsciousness overtake him.


End file.
